That was disappointing. Perhaps I expected too much. It’s been consistently cryptic for five seasons, why stop now? Cynically, you could suggest that the series finale of Lost left so many questions unanswered in order to squeeze a few more dollars out of the fans in DVD sales.

Honestly, there were logic holes big enough to, er, fly a plane through. If the island and everything that happened on it were real, what was the point of the flash sideways? Was it just some sort of giant MacGuffin? And if flash sideways was just a staging post for heaven, why were there characters in the church who were still alive on the island? Ben, Hurley, Rose, Bernard, Sawyer, Claire, Kate? Was Desmond just some sort of crossing guard, there to point everyone in the right direction? What about Miles and Lapidus? Am I experiencing geek outrage right now? Maybe. Geek annoyance, at least.

Sure, it was about the characters, as Doc Jensen keeps telling us. Yes, I had a wee tear when Sawyer and Juliet recognised each other in Sidewaysland. But in the end, it all began to look like a thinly-veiled religious metaphor (Freud would have had a field day with that stone knob being pulled out of the hole in the island and letting all the bad stuff out, btw).

By contrast, the series final of Ashes to Ashes in the UK was at least clear. And it was plotted from the beginning of Life on Mars, as this interview with series co-creator Matthew Graham makes clear. Warning: only read this if you have seen the final or you just don’t care.

Glee returns this Friday (June 4); the episode directed by Joss Whedon and starring Neil Patrick Harris is six eps in and contains a fabulous flash mob sequence. Oh, who am I kidding? You’ve probably downloaded it already. Also Miranda starts on TV1 on Friday – but at 11.00pm.

182 responses to this post

why were there characters in the church who were still alive on the island

Spoilers, of course.

Because what we thought of as the flash sideways wasn't set in any time - Christian Shephard (heh, didn't pick that one until two seconds before Kate did), said something along those lines - there is only now - to Jack at the end. So they all lived happily ever after, or not, to get together and hang out in a sideways purgatory until they were all ready to go together. Hugo and Ben had their post finale adventures, Charlie etc didn't.

But yeah. All day I've been going "but what about Walt?" "but what about all those pregnant women?", "what about Mr Eko?", "what about Eloise?", "what's with Jack's son" and so on. I think the only answer is that that's how Jacob ran things.

The first thing I read after the Lost finale happened to be The Guardian's blog about the Lost finale. I had to quickly avert my eyes when I realised it included an Ashes to Ashes spoiler, but I can now see why it did.

And Ashes to Ashes resolved its unrealities a buttload better than Lost did.

As B Jones said, the flash sideways didn't exist in time, so Hurley and Ben had a brief exchange about how good they were at being in charge of the island post-real time narrative in the show. Some had already died, some were to die, but because 'what happened in Lost' was the most important time in their lives they all met up there before going off to heaven.

The sixth season was so bad that I was only watching because I'd already watched so much of it, and I thought I wasn't bothered by all the unresolved questions. But the ending was so, so bad that I realised that I was. Perhaps if, when Jack was dying, a polar bear suddenly leapt out of the jungle and finished him off, I could have been okay with it all.

ETA: in fact it was so bad that later that night I threw up. Some would say that this was because of a stomach virus that was circulating through Pittsburgh, but I know it was because of Christian Shephard.

The great big fat takeaway I took from the Lost finale was "No man is an island" - fortunately the writers weren't so crass as to say it out loud, or name any of the characters after John Donne.

What annoyed me way more than the unanswered questions (once they're answered they're never as much fun), was the fact that the writers were way underqualified to write about all the baby stuff that happened. I watched it with another mum, and we both burst out laughing when Kate decided it was time for Claire to push, after about 5 minutes of active labour. Goodness knows how Kate fed Aaron in the several days between Claire's disappearance and their rescue, not to mention how CJ Cregg fed Jacob and his brother.

I think it helped understand what happened to have watched Lisa Williams, Touched by an Angel (or even dare I say it Sensing Murder). The characters all died in the initial plane crash. But according to Lisa Williams and others there can be problems to moving on - to the light/heaven or whatever. Some take a while to accept they are dead. You also have to examine your life and eventually do some restorative justice/ redemption stuff. That was what apparently happened for 6 seasons (not that I watched any until the last week). Most of them were then ready to move once Jack (was that his name? the one with the plug and the hot pool and the father with the unsubtle name) finally died/accepted they had all died in the crash.

It was all a big joke on the Lost ie the non believers, who were taking it all as something logical and this worldly. It's American after all.

@Ngaire. Try sidereel.com. Until a few weeks ago I hadn't bothered ether, but now I'm about to watch the latest Doctor Who, and I'm getting a little hooked. They use mainly megavideo.com links, and there's usually an HD version.

Others here probably have better advice, but this worked for me. It does make me wonder why we don't have 'worldwide releases' of TV series now, as we do for many films.

As to Lost, now that those who care have seen it, here's the alternative endings, featuring some unexpected guests, including Bob Newhart. From the sound of it they are more popular than the actual.

I don't think they did. I'm with Jake: Jack died then, people like Boone and Locke died earlier, but Sawyer and Kate and the others (not The Others) escaped on the plane and died maybe years later. Everything not in sideways world was real, albeit strange, odd, and mystical at times. But they all met up in limbo/sideways world after their deaths, had a kumbaya in the church and happily moved on to blinding-white-light world.

I was a little bit confused by the ending to begin with but after reflecting on it for a while it sort of just fell into place for me. I thought the writers treated the weird stuff really well: they just put it out there for us to believe or not believe, and we were all 'wha?' but all along they were playing it straight, and that most of it wasn't a dream was a huge relief to me.

Keeping us strung along for six seasons only to have everything fall into place in the last episode, and for some, pretty neatly, was an extraordinary achievement. So glad I hung in there.

I gave up at the end of season 1 really. I watched the first few episodes of season 2 but read about the shows makers saying they weren't quite sure what direction the show was going and what was going on with the island.

That's quite common in TV series but I think in ones like this they should know from the get go what's going on and where they are headed or else it renders many parts of the show pointless.

Imagine reading a book where the ending hasn't been written and when you get to the end the author may not really bother writing one - would you read it? Maybe, but it's a lot of time to invest in something that may dupe you somewhat.

I think I've watched every episode. I'd say the last season or so has been a little week as things try to wrap up. it was better earlier when there were new themes to explore, but hey, there are worse things to watch, right?

I had heard that they'd had the finale firmly in mind when they wrote the initial episodes - my theory is that mid series they went on a few diversions. That makes sense to me - the whole backstory/redemption thing was integral to the series, probably more so than the pregnant women/hatch/nuclear bomb/mercenaries things. And the finale focused on that backstory.

I've been rewatching and found the first season very difficult to get through once the initial setup was in place (Christian and the coffin, the whispers, the smoke monster, the cave). The characters spend the whole series misunderstanding each other and getting into silly conflicts - Michael vs Jin, Michael vs Locke, Sawyer vs everyone, Jack vs Locke, Charlie vs Locke etc etc. I can see why, but I wanted to smack nearly all of them by the end of season 1.

I haven't read any theory about Lost or what it's creators intended until those handy links above. The show always struck me as largely an emotional parable about fear and uncertainty in the wake of 9/11. With lashings of brash Christianity, cod philosophy and suchlike.

I similarly found last night's finale easier to appreciate on an emotional level and some of those flashes of realising previous personal connection moved me. I really wasn't looking for a resolved plot, so I'm finding it hard to relate to the annoyance of those who clearly did.

Patchy though it was, I think Lost can still claim to be the big speculative fiction series of the 00s in the same way that The X Files was the big speculative series of the 90s. And much as I love Scully and Mulder, I don't think I even bothered to watch the series finale. That was definitely a case of the authors not having a clue, and biting off more series mythology than they could comfortably wrap up.

As an aside, Mulder in the second X Files movie bore a striking resemblance to post-rescue "we have to go back, Kate" Jack, scraggly beard, failed relationship and all.